Campaigners fighting a Costa Coffee shop have been labelled elitist – but say
class has nothing to do with their objections.

Number 70 High Street in Southwold, the picturesque seaside town in Suffolk, is a fairly nondescript building. Glass-fronted and red-brick, there are faded letters spelling out “Fanny and Frank Boutique Clothing” still visible on the window. To the right is a busy dry cleaner’s; to the left is Mumford’s hardware store and the Southwold gallery. Above, an estate agent is advertising a luxury apartment in the old offices of Norton Peskett solicitors. Passing tourists barely glance at the building as they scurry between antique shops and tea rooms to escape the drizzle.

But to the residents of Southwold, the empty premises at No 70 are very significant. If developers have their way, this will be the site of a new Costa Coffee outlet, the town’s first chain coffee shop and, locals say, a “watershed” in the destruction of their historic high street. Following the opening of Tesco last October, and the replacement of the town’s last bookshop with W H Smith, residents see the latest arrival as a threat to independent businesses – and they’re doing everything in their power to stop it.

Nearly 100 letters of opposition have been sent to the town council, signs have been hammered into lamp posts and droves of locals are expected to attend a public hearing on the matter next Tuesday. But with Costa’s proposals already approved by Waveney District Council’s planning officers, and renovation work well under way in the shop, residents say they are struggling to get their voices heard.

This week, Southwold’s “Say No To Costa Coffee” campaign faced another blow when commenters on a local news website branded locals “snobs” for their opposition to the chain. “Southwold has long been the preserve of weekender Range Rover-driving, Hunter boots-wearing city types,” wrote one critic, accusing campaigners of “wanting their offspring to experience the same twee, rose-tinted, middle-class utopia of their childhood”. Another wrote: “God forbid that the town has something that might attract working‑class people.”

The comments have left Southwold’s proud locals reeling – and, they say, confused about why a campaign to preserve their high street is being portrayed as snobbery.

“Do you see any Range Rovers around here? Well, do you?” asks Professor Michael Rowan-Robinson, chairman of the Southwold and Reydon Society and one of the main campaigners against Costa. I admit that I haven’t spotted a single one. He looks smug. “These comments are just atrocious. Atrocious! Has this person even been to Southwold? We’re not like that at all – take a look around for yourself.”

And I do. Southwold isn’t known as Notting Hill-on-Sea for nothing. Houses here sell for well over £1 million – a beach hut is currently on the market for £70,000 – and the high street is full of exclusive women’s clothing shops, artisan bakeries, delicatessens and gastropubs. There is not a scrap of litter, and even the rain can’t keep away the hordes of tourists, bussed in from across the country, who spend the summer strolling along the promenade and perusing expensive souvenir shops. It is little wonder this costal resort is a magnet for the rich and famous – Gordon and Sarah Brown have holidayed here, as have Chris Evans, Dame Judi Dench, Twiggy and Michael Palin, who famously met his wife on the strand in 1959.

“The idiot who described us as 'snobby’ has revealed a lot about him or herself with those comments,” John Perkins, secretary of the local campaign group, says. “It’s ridiculous to say not wanting a Costa is a question of class – it’s a question of common sense. Tourism keeps Southwold afloat and the tourists come for the nice, privately owned shops that make our high street unique. If a Costa opens, those shops will be put at risk.”

Eighty-four per cent of Southwold’s retailers are independently owned – and out of 1,000 locals, about 400 are employed in tourism – but the town’s beloved high street is not entirely clear of corporate chains. Within a few hundred yards of the proposed coffee shop are Aubin and Wills, Crewe Clothing and Fat Face clothing stores. “They’re clamouring to open a Boots as well, but we’ve got two perfectly good chemists,” explains Prof Rowan-Robinson.

So why is the arrival of Costa such a big deal? Residents object to the number of coffee shops already in the town: 20 in the centre and 11 on the outskirts. “It’s not because it’s some garish chain; it’s because we already have more than enough places to get a hot drink,” explains Robert Adey, owner of Trinity’s tea rooms on the high street. “If someone had suggested a fish and chip shop, for example, that would be different as we only have one. I’d like to know why people are saying Costa would attract working-class people – you’d get a cheaper drink locally than in there.”

Campaigners have also accused the coffee chain of using unacceptable tactics in its planning application. “A developer acquired the shop, put in an application to refurbish and got permission,” explains John Veitch, 88, who has lived in Southwold for 40 years. “It was only then that we heard about the application to change the use.”

Costa, which owns 1,300 outlets nationwide, has sought permission from the district council to change the shop’s purpose from “retail” to “mixed use” – but, opponents allege, did so too late for local councillors to have any input.

For its part, Costa Coffee, run by Premier Inn owner Whitbread, says a branch in Southwold would create jobs and a “social meeting space”. But finding support for the outlet isn’t easy – just two letters received by the council have been in favour. On the streets, opinions are much the same. A group of tourists wandering towards the beach nod enthusiastically at the mention of Costa. One young resident says she “would quite like” one, but when I ask her name, she prefers not to give it as locals “can be a bit funny about this sort of thing”.

Unsurprisingly, existing tea and coffee shops are firmly on the side of the campaigners. Christine Webb, 55, owner of Tilly’s tea rooms for 20 years, says granting Costa’s application would be akin to “strangling” local businesses. “It will kill us,” she sighs. “We’re not like Yarmouth or Blackpool – we don’t close for six months when there are no tourists. That means we’re fighting to exist half the year; we lose money in the winter.” Graham Denny, owner of the nearby Buckenham coffee house, agrees. “I don’t want Southwold to become like every other high street,” he says. “Opening a Costa would seriously damage the town.”

Yesterday, there were more comments on local websites criticising residents’ opposition to Costa. “How awful for the luvvies in Southwold that when they visit their second homes once a year they might see people drinking coffee,” one person had written. “I am repeatedly shocked at the insular attitude of Southwold groups who would obviously rather see an empty shop than an open shop,” said another. But, with just a week to go before their chance to air their views in front of the district council, campaigners refuse to be deterred.

“We’re not high street snobs, but neither are we pickled in aspic,” says Guy Mitchell, chairman of the local Chamber of Trade and Commerce, who also works as Southwold’s postmaster. “It’s not fair to say that we don’t like to evolve. We are in favour of change – just the right kind, at the right pace, at the right time. Opening a Costa Coffee in the middle of our high street is none of those things.”